Delegating Effectively: Empowering Your Team for Success

Have you ever seen a team leader swamped with work and struggling to stay afloat? They work late nights and weekends to hit deadlines, yet their team still seems unproductive in comparison and lacks direction and motivation. Does this description hit a little too close to home? Don’t worry if this sounds like you. There's a cure for this bottleneck in a team's productivity and effectiveness. That cure is called delegation.

Good delegation increases productivity, enhances skills, and brings new ideas. It also builds trust and makes team members feel important and ready to give their best. But delegation needs to be done right. Leaders must know their team's strengths and set clear expectations. They must also support their team with guidance, feedback, and an open environment for sharing ideas.

Strategies for Effective Delegation

Delegation is key for leaders to improve team efficiency and performance. Here are practical strategies and real-life examples to help leaders implement effective delegation:

Understand Your Team's Strengths and Weaknesses

Before delegating tasks, take the time to understand each team member's skills and preferences. If you have a team member who excels in analytical thinking, delegate tasks that require data analysis or critical problem-solving. On the other hand, tasks involving art and design could be assigned to those with a capacity for creativity. This approach ensures tasks are completed efficiently and boosts team members' confidence as they work on projects that align with their strengths.

Set Clear Goals and Expectations

Setting clear goals is essential for success, and the SMART goals help make these goals actionable and effective. SMART stands for:

• Specific: Clearly define the goal.
• Measurable: Make sure you can track progress.
• Achievable: Ensure the goal is realistic.
• Relevant: Align the goal with broader objectives.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline for the goal.

Say a sales manager wants to boost his team's performance. A SMART goal would be to increase monthly sales by 10% in the next quarter. This goal is specific to sales, measurable by the percentage increase, achievable with effort, relevant to the team's purpose, and time-bound with a quarterly deadline. Using SMART goals makes it easier to focus and succeed.

Provide the Necessary Resources

Ensure your team has access to the tools and resources needed to complete your delegated tasks. If a team member is tasked with compiling a report, ensure they can access the necessary data sources and analytics tools. Providing resources also means offering your time for guidance and questions, which are often overlooked but equally important.

Let's say a marketing manager asks someone from his team to conduct market research in their field but doesn't give them the right tools or info to do a good job. This person tries hard to find pieces of information here and there on the internet, but it's not enough to really understand the big picture, and it’s certainly not an effective use of their time. Because they don't have what they need, they can't do the work well or quickly, making them feel frustrated. It is extremely important to ensure his team has everything they need to do their tasks quickly, efficiently, and correctly.

Empower with Authority

When you delegate a task, delegate the authority required to complete it. If a team member organizes an event, empower them to decide the venue, catering, and agenda. This empowerment encourages initiative and reduces restrictions in decision-making.

It's crucial to communicate this delegated authority clearly to the rest of the team and any relevant department heads. If others know that a team member has been empowered with certain decision-making capabilities, it helps reinforce their authority and prevents any potential confusion or conflicts. Sending a brief email to your team stating that a particular member is leading the event organization and has the authority to make related decisions ensures everyone is on the same page. This not only boosts the confidence of the individual in charge but also streamlines the workflow and makes the delegation process more effective.

Establish Check-in Points

Set milestones and regular check-ins to monitor progress without micromanaging. Suppose you've assigned a long-term project to a team member: scheduling monthly check-ins allows you to track progress, offer feedback, and make adjustments as necessary. This approach keeps projects on track and builds trust between you and your team.

Think of your team’s goal as the top of a tall ladder. You need to climb one step at a time to reach the top, right? So, if you set a small goal each day, it's like climbing one step. These little daily goals help you reach bigger goals each week, and those help you achieve even bigger goals each month, and so on.

There's a great book called "The One Thing" by Gary Keller about how focusing on just one important thing at a time can help you reach your dreams faster. Gary Keller shows you how to pick the most important task that will help you move forward. Choosing the right steps on your ladder ensures you always move towards your overall goal.

Foster a Feedback Culture

Encourage feedback from your team about the delegation process itself. After completing a project, ask for their input on what worked well and what could be improved. This could be as simple as a quick team meeting or a feedback form. Act on this feedback to refine your delegation strategy and show your team that their opinions are valued and considered.

In the Army, when we finish a mission, we have a procedure called an After Action Review, or AAR for short. Imagine sitting down with your team and discussing a big game you just played. Everyone gets to share their thoughts on a few important questions:

• What did we plan to do?
• What really happened?
• What went well?
• What failed?
• What can we do better next time?

This way, we all understand what happened and learn from any mistakes. Think of it as how to win the next game by discussing the last one.

Celebrate Successes and Learn from Failures

Recognize and celebrate when tasks are well-executed. This recognition can be public praise during team meetings or a written acknowledgment in team communications. Likewise, when things don't go as planned, treat it as a learning opportunity rather than a failure. Discuss openly what could be done differently next time, reinforcing your team's growth mindset.

Celebrating successes and learning from failures is key to growing as a team and as leaders. "The New One-Minute Manager" by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is a great book that touches on these important concepts. It teaches us to quickly recognize when our team does something well and learn from mistakes without dwelling on them too much.

Conclusion

Remember that manager from the beginning of this article? Now imagine having a manager who successfully leverages his team's unique strengths by assigning tasks and responsibilities that align with each member's skills and interests. Guided by such leadership, the team functions efficiently, and each member feels valued and motivated. This supportive environment encourages innovation and outstanding performance, minimizing the need for close supervision.

By incorporating these strategies into your leadership approach, you can transform how work is done within your team. Effective delegation improves productivity and outcomes and enhances team morale and individual job satisfaction.

References:

Blanchard, K., & Johnson, S. (May 5, 2015). The New One Minute Manager. Thorsons.
Doran, G. T. (1981). There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives. Management Review, 70(11), 35-36.
Keller, G. (2017). The One Thing. The Bard Press